


Sherlock's Brain

by Marauder_Lupine



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Does that still count for Sherstrade Month?, Fluff, Gen, Greg-centric, I'm tagging it anyway, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, M/M if you squint, Sherstrade Month, Sherstrade Month 2017, but mostly friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-21 23:29:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9571703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marauder_Lupine/pseuds/Marauder_Lupine
Summary: Or, "How Sherlock Deleted Greg's Name."Random Prompt: I can fix it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if just anyone can participate in Sherstrade Month 2017, but I hope so because I am... participating in Sherstrade Month 2017. At least this once.
> 
> Also, I don't actually think this is very good, but here it is anyway.

Sherlock's brain was a fascinating thing. Greg was in awe of it’s capacity; how it stored every bit of information Sherlock took in. Sherlock had explained how it all worked very early on in their acquaintance - the deductions, the Mind Palace. Greg knew some people, clever people, were capable of such things. After the first few times Sherlock visited his crime scenes, watching him fire off deductions one after the other, he realized that Sherlock was more than just clever.

It was also early on that Greg learned, while Sherlock relished solving crimes and conducting experiments, he was easily agitated by the constant totter of not-enough and too-much. Greg wasn’t even surprised the first time he saw Sherlock high on drugs. Disappointed, sure, but he could understand the appeal for someone as exceptional as Sherlock. Watching the young man struggle to regulate the ebb and flow of information he was constantly cataloging, he almost felt bad for making him quit cold-turkey each time Sherlock started using again. His brain was too remarkable to let go to waste on drugs. _Sherlock_ was too extraordinary to let go to waste on drugs.

It was either get clean or he wouldn’t be welcome on any more of Greg’s cases. Sherlock knew he couldn’t rely on the drugs all the time, so to Greg’s relief, it was always enough to get Sherlock clean. At least for a while. Greg never let him do it on his own though; he was always there to help as best as he could. Sometimes it made all the difference he thought, but on more than a handful of occasions, Sherlock would fight him on the matter. Greg would pop in randomly (and not so randomly) to raid the dank, dirty flats where he stayed and Sherlock would push and punch and throw Greg out bodily. On those occasions, Greg would call Mycroft and let him take over. Sherlock and Greg both hated those times because they always led to Sherlock being sent away. Sherlock would show up a 30, 60, 90 days later though and all would be forgiven on both sides.

Once though, when Sherlock had been giving him a particularly hard time about getting clean again, Greg had threatened to call Mycroft. Sherlock had looked him dead in the eye and said, “do that, Greg, and I promise to completely delete you from my Mind Palace.” Sherlock refused again to stop the drugs this time, so Greg had no choice but to call Mycroft. He watched Sherlock sit motionless, his eyes closed and his hands steepled beneath his chin as they waited. He could picture Sherlock, in his own mind’s eye, taking a sledgehammer to a door labeled “Greg Lestrade.”

Sherlock made a lot of threats when he was high and was being forced to do something he didn’t want to do, but Greg never worried about those threats half as much as he worried about this one during the months Sherlock had been away. He received regular updates from Mycroft and was pleased to know Sherlock was doing well, but still he worried. When he received a final update letting him know Sherlock would be leaving the rehabilitation facility and returning to London, he waited weeks for Sherlock to contact him. When two months passed and he still hadn’t heard from him, Greg realized that Sherlock had followed through with his threat.

It broke Greg’s heart for reasons he could hardly bring himself to acknowledge, for reasons he’d tried so hard to ignore over the years. He did his best to accept that Sherlock had moved on, away from him. He thought he’d almost done a decent job of it too, until he’d been startled late one night walking to his car in the Yard parking garage.

Greg was nearly floored with the relief that washed over him at the sight of Sherlock creeping out of the shadows. He was clean and looking healthy, if still a bit too skinny. Greg was glad to see him after having gone so long without hearing from him. So glad in fact, it had taken him a few moments to catch up to the conversation Sherlock had jumped into.

“I can fix it,” Sherlock had said without preamble. “I thought I’d’ve done so already, that’s why I stayed away for so long, but it’s taking longer than I anticipated. I’m certain I _can_ fix it.”

Greg wanted wrap his arms around the man for simply _being there_ , but instead he put them up to slow Sherlock down and give himself a second to catch up.

“What are you trying to fix?” Greg asked him. Normally, a question like that would have caused an annoyed reaction from Sherlock, but Sherlock simply turned away, suddenly embarrassed.  
  
“I didn’t delete you, Lestrade; not entirely,” Sherlock tried to explain again. He spoke slower and with a bit of hesitation. “I’ve made a mess of things however. I didn’t want to see you until I could fix it, but I’m afraid it may take a while. I am trying still, but I didn’t want to stay away any longer.”

To know he had even a small part of Sherlock’s Mind Palace all to himself delighted Greg, but to know that Sherlock, who struggled to balance the constant too-much, not-enough in his brain, was fighting to get back the bits of him he’d lost, Greg was truly flattered.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment. Or not, I guess.


End file.
